Purported release slate shows next Starcraft and Diablo III coming in Q4 2011, mystery game "Titan" due in 2013.

What we heard: Sometimes even the thinnest of rumors spark massive interest. Take the case of an allegedly leaked image on MMOGameSite purporting to be of Blizzard's release schedule for the next four years. Though the image could have been easily faked and has the barest of attribution, it does lay out an intriguingly realistic release schedule for the powerful publisher-developer's upcoming lineup.

Is this Blizzard's big release schedule?

First up on the schedule is Battle.net, the second version of which launched earlier this year. According to the schedule, a map market for the online service will launch in the second quarter of 2011, followed by third-party offerings a la Steam in the first quarter of 2012.

Next on the schedule is Starcraft II, the first part of which, Wings of Liberty, launched in July and has already sold over 3 million units. The next installment in the three-part game, the Heart of the Swarm, is apparently set for a holiday release next year, with the third, Legacy of the Void, coming in the first quarter of 2013. Curiously, a fourth Starcraft II product, code-named "Phoenix" is also scheduled for a fourth quarter 2011 release date--perhaps indicating a two-game pack with Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm is in the offing.

Next up is Diablo III, which will also ship in Q4 2011 according to the schedule. The role-playing game--which may also be coming to consoles, according to recent job listings--is slated to have two expansions: One in Q2 2013 and a second in Q4 2014.

Then there's World of Warcraft. Following next week's launch of the Cataclysm expansion, the next big thing on the WOW horizon is the game's Brazilian launch in the third quarter of 2011. The fourth WOW expansion is listed as arriving in Q2 2012, followed by a new WOW trading card game the following quarter. The schedule also has the World of Warcraft film debuting in Q4 2012, a date which may slip since director Sam Raimi is apparently directing a Wizard of Oz prequel next.

According to the schedule, a fifth World of Warcraft expansion is set for Q3 2013. That's the same quarter that a mystery project--code-named "Titan"--is also set to launch. Little is known about the mystery project, but Blizzard is rumored to be developing a massively multiplayer first-person shooter in the vein of Planetside.

The official story: "As always, we appreciate the interest in Blizzard's current and upcoming games, but we don't comment on rumors or speculation and we don't have any new announcements to make."--Blizzard rep.

Bogus or not bogus?: Too little to go on, but the release windows jibe with the approximate 18-to-24-month periods between Blizzard games. However, at the Game Developers Conference Online in October, Battle.net project director Greg Canessa said that the next Starcraft installment was 18 months away. That time frame makes it due in March or April of 2012, not Q4 2011. With Blizzard not talking, it's unclear if Canessa's comments are outdated, the schedule is outdated, or the schedule was made up out of thin air. However, if a Portuguese-language version of WOW pops up next year in Brazil, it will lend this schedule some serious credibility.

I'm disappointed at Blizzard. I could understand a game like Duke Nukem taking forever to release, but not Diablo. I doubt this whole wait is mainly due slow development of gameplay and/or game polishment. Surely Blizzard is sitting on its butt, taking its time, figuring ways on how to make the most out of these games, economically speaking.

The one thing I noticed is that the schedule says that the next wow xpac comes out in Q2 2012. Thats about a year and a half after cata. In a interview, they said that players might not have to wait two years for the next expansion like they usually do.

@ NFSruler : My friend, what do GT5 and Duke Nukem have to do with my earlier comment? Perhaps I'm missing something?
@ mandy007 : I didn't say D3 would be coming out this year. I know it's been pushed back to next year. I don't think Blizzard purposefully puts out games far apart on purpose though. They do it the way they do simply because quality games take even an experienced team a long time to complete.
@ rolo107 : I agree there is more content that needs to be finished, that's clear, but, as Vengeancekael pointed out, SC2 and WoW Cataclysm both came out/are coming this year.

@ Vengeancekael : Where did Blizzard respond to the rumors? I do know, as we can all see for a fact in Blizzards jobs listing that they ARE hiring a "Lead Designer, Console" for D3. That's a fact, as if it wasn't there wouldn't be a listing for the job they are wanting to fill. I agree they haven't "Officially Confirmed" it, the job listing wouldn't be there if they weren't porting it over. If the job listing points to the fact that they'll be porting it over, then they would push back the PC release to make a multi-platform launch.
When I was in my 20's I did professional beta testing in house at EA Tiburon in Orlando Florida and I did some testing for Microsoft making the "MechCommander" series. The latest project I've worked on was "Elemental:War of Magic" for Stardock (my name is in the credits as RavenX) . Having been in the "Industry" I can tell you first hand companies have pushed back and delayed games in the past that were completely done just so they could maximize profits in a related area. This leads me to at the very least surmise that Blizzard would indeed push back the release until they see whether or not a console port would be possible.
Even for a company as big and powerful as Blizzard, the name of the game here is "Money", my friend.

@ runtheplacered
Marketing strategy/schedule is entirely different than procrastinating. Well... somewhat. Delaying or picking a release day when a product is finished/nearly finished is typical in order to figure when sales might be best.
Procrastination begs the staff to be lazy as all hell for as long as possible if they know how long they can be lazy. Anyone in a modern workplace would LOVE to be able to know they had deadline extensions added at the end of a project, since they're otherwise going to sit around and do nothing until absolutely forced to.

Its doubtful that this is real Blizzard is like Nintendo very tightlipped. If this were real then I doubt we would have seen it. WoW expansions are always 2 years apart and always in the 4th quarter, which is winter time.

fake, all wow expansions have had their releases 2 years between each other.
Also Blizzard would never do 2 big releases during the same quarter. Sale numbers are too important, they want all their games to top the charts.
SC2X and D3 at the same time wont happen, WoW X5 (if that would ever happen) and Titan wont happen.

@madSomnambulist,
"It's a sad day if a company ever officially sets up a procrastination-based release schedule instead of one actually based on when stuff is done."
You apparently have no concept of what 'marketing strategy' means.

Well, it could be fake but I still believe in the fact that those name in the picture exist and could be out at any moment, diablo3 seem to be almost done so next year could be a good time on that release, next wow expansion not impress about they making another one to keep the game up (wouldn't be mad but put something else on it please) and about that Titan never underestimate the Blizzard Company maybe they want to be involve in something else then just Mythological Histories and Barbaric fights, I guess we'll just have to wait for couple more years to see what happens.

If this is valid i wouldnt want to see 2 WoW expansions in 2 and a half years....
Also Diablo3 all speculations were Q3 to Q4 2011 so in a way is valid.
About Titan , dont think blizzard would ever release 2 games on exactly same Q. Especially if both were mmorpgs...
That would hurt each other. Something that i doubt Blizzard would ever do.
The "bad" thing is that as it seems we will never see a WARCRAFT 4 game soon enough. More likely will be a STARCRAFT 3 since wow seems go strong even into 2014-2015.

Silly Blizzard, your games end in "craft", with the exception of diablo. No way is blizzard making a new franchise!!
But I would love a MMO borderlands, since borderlands reminded me of a FPS diablo. It was a never-ending quest for killing stuff for new loot.

love how i got thumbs down for pointing out that blizzard only EVER says "when its done" when they're asked about release dates. i love blizzard and their games (minus WoW) but i do not like the massive wait for games.

I'd say higher odds of being real if it wasn't tripping over itself with anything even close to being in the same quarter.
I think a better news story here might be "Blizzard settings itself up to be lazy through 2015?" ... It's a sad day if a company ever officially sets up a procrastination-based release schedule instead of one actually based on when stuff is done.

@Nosnitsttam yea if it's real, then it's just there so blizz can please acti-blizz share holders. We all know blizzard doesn't release a games on the same qrt which this list shows 3 games going out the same qrt.

Blizzard needs to just tell consoles to go suck it like they always do, every PC or Mac(if there is such a thing) gamer plays Blizzard games and we dont need the pure console gaming tools. As for this being real idk... but if it were i dont think it would matter, everything will be released later than expected anyhow im sure.

@RavenXavier They obviously responded to the rumors, saying that they won't be pushing the release date of Diablo III just so that they can release the console versions with the PC version. And the console version isn't even confirmed.